Living in a World of Promises
by redemption2005
Summary: Lacey Duval is finally out of the hospital and trying to live a normal life again with her diabetes. But the promises that shes made to so many people... Can she keep them? Please leave comments! Thanks
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER! **Hey! I dont own Lacey Duval, Jeff McKensie, Jenny House, and many other charachters that may end up being part of this story, Lurlene McDaniel does! So don't sue me or anything, I'm giving you a warning!

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Also, let me know what you think, if I get good reviews, I'll keep writing! Thanks!

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**Chapter One:**

"Lacey? Is that really you?"

Lacey Duval looked up at Jeff McKensie, who was walking through the hospital's cafeteria.

"Hi Jeff, yeah, it's me!" Lacey said, flipping her blonde hair out of her face. "What's up?"

"Nothing much, what are you doing here?" Jeff asked.

"Oh, you know… The usual… Uncle Nelson wants me here to check up on my blood sugar levels."

"Your diabetes being a problem?" Jeff asked, pulling out a seat and sitting down next to Lacey.

"No, but after I went into keto, they're keeping a close check on me. I don't see why though, I can handle my diabetes perfectly fine."

Since leaving the hospital, Lacey had filled Jeff in on what had happened in her life involving her diabetes. She still didn't understand why medical sciencehadn't come up with a better way for a diabetic to get insulin into her body, but her blood sugar levels had gone way up after she had cheated on her diet and decreased her insulin injections to loose weight. She had stopped checking her blood-glucose altogether, and figured, why bother?

Deep down in Lacey's mind, she knew that ignoring her diabetes wouldn't make it go away, but at least it made life easier! But ending up in a diabetic coma with high blood sugar wasn't the easy way out. Her Uncle Nelson was her doctor, who made her see all sorts of specialists now, a counsellor, a dietician, an exercise therapist, and now, a social worker.

"Lacey, if you were handling your diabetes perfectly fine, you wouldn't have ended up in the hospital. There's no use lying about it. The only way you can keep your diabetes under control is with your diet, insulin and exercise. We all want you to win this, Lacey. Your sixteen now, shouldn't you take control of yourself?"

"Jeff, don't you think I hear enough of this at home? Now that Mom's checking my blood sugar on the monitor twice a day and monitoring every bite that goes into my mouth, every slightly high or low number makes her go crazy. I cant wait to be on my own!"

"Sorry, Lacey. I'm just worried about you. It's not like I haven't experienced doctors and hospitals, you know."

Jeff had hemophilia, which meant that his blood didn't clot properly. At the very least, a small cut could land him in the hospital, even kill him. Jeff was in university at FSU, studying architecture, but still incredibly interested in Lacey, and had been since they had met at Jenny House two years before.

Lacey glanced down at her watch. "Jeff, I've gotta go. Sorry, my appointment's in three minutes, and Uncle Nelson will be really mad if I'm late… or if I don't show up at all."

Jeff took Lacey's hand. "I'll wait in the waiting room. Then maybe we could go somewhere after?"

"Sure." Lacey said.

For the last little while, Lacey was trying to tone herself down and be more open around people, instead of wearing coolness like a shield.

Lacey and Jeff walked back towards Dr. Nelson's waiting room, which had moved into the Diabetes Research Institute not too long ago. The DRI was a huge complex to research, treat and diagnose diabetes, which had been built recently. While Lacey had been sitting in the cafeteria, she had forgotten she was in the DRI, not in the regular hospital. "What are you doing in the DRI? They haven't got you diagnosed with diabetes do they? Trust me, you don't want it." Lacey said coolly.

"No, I was just over in the main hospital building, and I remembered you mentioning you had to see your uncle a few weeks ago. I decided to come through the DRI and check the place out, and here you were."

"Oh. I thought my mom or my uncle might have gotten you in on this. They really like you Jeff."

"I like you too, Lacey."

She had tried not too, but something about him sparked her interest and made her want to know more of him.

She sighed. "I tried not to." She told him truthfully. "I tried not to like you"

She gazed up into Jeff's eyes, and he tilted her chin upwards and swiftly pushed her hair away from her face. "But things arent always how you plan, Lacey." He said, then kissed her gently.

"I really have to go, Jeff." Lacey said.

He moved his hand away from her face, then grabbed her hand. "Lets go, I wouldnt want you in trouble again."

Lacey walked with Jeff to Uncle Nelson's office, then figured she should probably check her blood sugar before she went in. "Jeff, I've gotta check my glucose, can you tell them I'm here? I'll just be over in the corner there." She said, motioning to a secluded corner.

"Sure." Jeff said, as Lacey ducked into the corner.

She fumbled with the glucometer and finally got a reading. Luckily, it was close to normal. She threw the monitor back into her messenger bag and pulled out her glucose log.

"So many days left..." She said softly to herself. "So many days."


	2. Chapter 2

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**Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up! I'll try to write more, read and review please!**

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Uncle Nelson looked up at Lacey, a smile lifted the corners of his mouth. "Your glucose numbers are excellent, I dont know why you went into keto before, you have a pretty tight hold on your blood sugars now. Are things with Dr. Rosenberg going well?" 

Lacey cringed. She hated him to mention the psychiatrist she was seeing as part of the treatment of her diabetes. "Um... I guess so." Lacey stumbled.

"Lacey, you know that treating your diabetes involves both your body and your mind. You did some damage to your body when you went into keto, and we can't reverse it. I dont want you ending up blind or on dialysis, you know that. I love you Lacey."

"I'll keep trying Uncle Nelson. Believe me."

"I believe you. Now, go along. I saw Jeff out in the waiting room, and he's going to get worried if you're in here too long." Lacey nodded and left her uncle's office.

Lacey walked down the hallway behind the reception desk that she knew all too well. The area she had been so many times. She remembered the time she walked down this hallway after she had been diagnosed. Her blood sugar level was at 508--a normal reading was between 70 and 120. She had been tired, hungry, thin, and most of all, thirsty and dehydrated from lack of insulin. The samesymptoms occurred when she was in keto. Her friend Terri had started getting suspicious of Lacey's weight-loss method; when it had been leading Lacey into the bathroom frequently because her body didnt know what to do with the extra sugar--ketones--in her blood.

"Hey Lacey, how did things with your uncle go?" Jeff said.

"Hey Jeff. They went good. It's actually nice seeing people being happy with me for once!" Lacey said. She slung the messenger bag she was carrying over her shoulder, and scheduled her next appointment with her uncle's receptionist.

It wasnt easy to keep her glucose in control. Lacey was busy, which caused things to get out of hand. Her parent's divorce had been hard on her, which probably caused her numbers to skyrocket as well as the extra snacks and skipping injections. The worst thing was that Lacey didnt know anyone else with diabetes and had nobody to talk to about the daily hassles of insulin and testing and glucose numbers and exercise and her diet. It was so frustrating!

"Do you think it would help to go to one of those diabetic support groups?" Jeff asked as he and Lacey headed out of the doors of the DRI. "I know that at Jenny House it helped me when I got to know other people who were dealing with diseases."

"I dont want to go to one of Uncle Nelson's stupid support groups. He thinks they're so great and that he knows what I need. Only I know what I need--not to have diabetes."

When they reached Jeff's car, he unlocked the passenger door and held it open for Lacey. She slid inside and buckled the seatbelt, then Jeff entered the driver side door. "Well, I have a feeling that you're not going to be getting rid of your diabetes tomorrow. You remember what Gary said when we went on the tour of the DRI, right?" He said, switching the car into gear.

"Yeah, yeah. Islet cell transplants would be good, but they have to figure out how to grow an entire planet of islets for everybody with diabetes."

"Exactly."

Lacey and Jeff drove along the busy Miami roads. "So, are you good for a snack? I was thinking the Surf Shack."

"Probably, it's my snack time anyways. Let me check my blood sugar."

Immediately after saying this, a light-headed feeling came over Lacey as she once again used the glucometer. 54. "Oh, great, I'mway low."

"Do you want any help, I can pull over." Jeff said.

"No, I'm fine. I just need some glucose tablets, that's all." Lacey said, then reached into her bag for the ever-familliar package. She took two and then remembered to wait for fifteen minutes, then check her glucose again.

Ten minutes later, she was feeling better, and they arrived at the Surf Shack. She satat a picnic table with the bench and table top shaped like surfboards, and pulled out her glucometer again. She hated testing in front of people, and sheknew since she was going to have a snack she should give herselfan insulin injection,so shegot up and told Jeff she was headed to the bathroom. She then locked herself intoa stall and tested her glucose.It was at 71, so she gave herself less insulin then she usually would. Since leaving the hospital, they had changed her insulin dosages to six seperate injections, so she could have more flexibility in what she ate and when she ate. She then hoped she had given herself agood amount of insulin--too much would leave hergoing backwards to another insulin reaction--hypoglycemia--and too little would make her blood sugars skyrocket--hyperglycemia. She drew up theinsulin in the syringe, and pushed it intoher stomach. It stung--even after having diabetes for five years she hadnt gotten used to the feeling ofgiving herself an insulin injection! Even now that it wassix times a day instead of two!

She capped the syringe and put it back in her bag to throw away later--at home she had a special biohazard container to throw her used syringes in. The test strips from her glucometer and the replaceable lancet--sharp--from the glucometer had to go in seperatecontainers and be taken to the pharmacy for special disposal. She didnt know where they went from there--and she couldnt care less! She then washed her hands and headed back out to the table. "Hey," She said when she sat down beside Jeff.

"Hey, Lacey. You okay?" He asked. "Oops--Sorry! You know I didnt mean that!"

She glared at Jeff, then smiled. "Bad boy--You know how much we hate that question!"

"Okay, okay, so what are we eating?" Jeff asked.

Lacey thought to her meal plan, and then looked at the menu. "How about strawberries and a bit of whipped cream and some cheese toast?"

"What an interesting combination!" Jeff laughed. Lacey shrugged and smiled--her meal plan could make things pretty odd sometimes. "But it sounds good."

Jeff went to the counter and ordered their food, while Lacey enviously watched the other customers. A girl who looked about 12 was eating a Mile High Mud Pie--by herself. Lacey cringed at the thought of what eating that mountain of cake by herself could do to her body. Kidney failure, blindness, heart disease--ugh. She was diagnosed when she was 11, so being a happy-go-lucky 12 year old eating a Mile High Mud Pie had passed her by. Diabetes put her at an endless struggle with weight gain, but now that she was working with an exercise therapist, she hadn't gained all of the weight back that she had lost when she went into keto. Uncle Nelson had always told her that she was at a healthy weight--but that wasnt what Lacey was thinking when she began experimenting with her insulin, food, and throwing up--she was thinking about pristine thin-ness.

Jeff arrived back with the food, and Lacey enjoyed every bite of it. Because of her diabetes, she had to take sugars into moderation, but now that she knew that she didnt have to deprive herself of the things she loved, she was more at peace with her diabetes--but still not fully. She hated how the disease plagued her from what she thought freedom was.

After they had finished eating, Jeff put his arm around Lacey and they walked to the car. He drove through the descending darkness and stopped at the front of her house. "Thanks for taking me out, Jeff. I love spending time with you?"

"Should we say Saturday, then? A movie at about nine, perhaps?"

"Sure, that sounds great. See you then, Jeff."

"Bye, Lacey."

She closed the car door and ran up the front sidewalk. Her mom was inside. "Hi, Lacey. Where were you?"

"Oh, just out with Jeff after my appointment. He was walking through the hospital and he saw me, so he waited while I was in with Uncle Nelson, and then we went to the Surf Shack."

"That's nice. What did Uncle Nelson have to say?"

"Oh, that my numbers are usually close to perfect and he dosen't understand why I went into keto a few months ago."

"Well, dinner will be ready in about two hours, so if you have any homework go ahead and do it, I'll call you when the food's ready."

"What are we having?" Lacey asked, prepared to do some quick calculations about how to inject her insulin.

"Chicken,apples, carrots, bread and cheese, I think. I bought some low-sugar ice cream, so if you'd like some of that after, you can."

"Great. I have an English paper to do, I think I'll go work on that."

"Okay, I'll call you when it's ready."

Lacey headed up the stairs to her bedroom, and her gaze caught on the biohazard container for her used syringes. She went and grabbed the messenger bag and threw the syringe inside. _People probably would think I'm a druggie or a hypochondriac if they saw this room._ Lacey thought. She shoved the container in a drawer of her desk, along with the sterile syringes, spare glucose monitor, batteries, glucose tablets, glucose gel, test strips, antidisenfectantswabs and a few glucagon syringes that were kept wrapped in plastic. She usually had some glucose tablets, her monitor, and enough stuff for a few insulin injections, and one glucagon syringe with her at all times, in case she was running late or needed some sugar, but tried to keep it hidden. She didnt like people asking her questions about her diabetes, and only the people who absolutely _had_ to know, knew about it.

She pulled out her English paper and set to work. The time stopped moving around her, and she was startled when the two hours had passed and her mom called her down to supper. She quickly tested her blood glucose, and measured out the right amount of insulin, then stuck herself with the needle, then pressed an antiseptic swab on the injection site. She threw the syringe in the biohazard container, and washed her hands, then went down to join her mother for dinner.

"So, Lacey, summer's coming up, and Uncle Nelson told me about a diabetes camp--"

"I'm _not_ going to diabetes camp. I'm too old for camp, anyways."

"Not as a camper, Lacey, as a counselor. I figure you've dealt with diabetes long enough that you could help others out who are coming to terms with it too."

"You dont come to terms with diabetes, it's just there."

"You know what I mean. Anyways,I told him that I'd talk to you about it. And seeing as you dont have a summer job, you could go for it. You'll get paid, and spend time outdoors and get lots of exercise--"

"If I go, will you leave me alone?"

"Excuse me?" Ms. Duval looked stricken.

"If I go," Lacey repeated slower "Will you leave me alone? Will you trust me with my diabetes at camp? Will you not call repeatedly and ask if I'm okay."

"Deal. If you go, I'll leave you alone for the six weeks that you'll be there."

"Okay, I'll go."

"Really?"

"Yes, I will. I'm serious."

"Great! I'll let Uncle Nelson know."

Lacey finished eating her supper, and then wondered if she had made the right choice. Right or not, she was going. And that was how Lacey ended up at Camp Blackbear.


	3. Chapter 3

Crystal skies and sapphire oceans beckoned in Lacey's view as she got out of the car at Camp Blackbear. She spun in the breeze and breathed in the salty sea air, as her parents unloaded her trunk from the car. Amazingly, they had survived the 45 minute car ride from the airport in Oregon to Camp Blackbear. Lacey and her fellow counselors had arrived at Camp Blackbear a week early to get orientated to Camp and the procedures and schedules that went with it.

Lacey was assigned to a cabin with another junior counselor named Emily Sandstorm, who, like her, was 17.Lacey's mother and father helped her carry her trunk to her cabin, and met Emily. "Hi, you must be Lacey." Said Emily as they stepped inside the cabin.

"Yep, you're Emily. Hi. These are my parents, but you wont be seeing much of them." Said Lacey.

"No, you wont." Said Lacey's father."Bye, Lacey. See you in seven weeks!"

"Bye dad, bye mom!" Lacey replied, hugging both of them. "Now, dont fight, I'm not there to referee." She softened her harsh words with a smile, and then laughed.

"Have a good time!" Chorused her parents, and then turned away and walked out the door.

"Its a wonder they can speak in unison, but not get along." Lacey said to Emily. "They're divorced, and being in the house with them is usually like being a piece of meat thrown in a tiger's cage."

"Ugh, fun." Said Emily sarcastically. "So, I think we should unpack, hey? The kids dont arrive for another week, but we have plenty to do until then!"

Along with being a counselor for a group of ten-year-old girls, Lacey would also be a leader in the arts and crafts cabin. She would also coach badminton for the Blackbear Games at the end of the summer, a camper-vs-camper mini Olympics, which included basketball, swimming, volleyball, kayak races, diving and obstacle-courses, just to name a few. The Olympic events woluld take place on the third-to-last day of camp, with the second-to-last day a dance and awards ceremony for the campers. The last day would include Parents Day, where the kids would put on skits, sing songs, and show their parents around Camp.

Lacey dragged her trunk into the room she and Emily would be sharing that was seperate from the other part of the cabin. They settled into putting their things on the shelves and dressers in the room, and Lacey cleared a space on the shelf for her syringes, glucometer, glucose tablets and glucagon. She then went back to the main cabin room with her insulin bottles, which were clearly labeled, and put them in the cabin's minifridge.Emily interupted Lacey's thoughts. "So, like, I'm on probation here. I was in the hospital a few months ago, and now they think I need to prove myself."

Lacey swallowed, she, too, had been in the hospital just a few months earlier. Emily hadred hair that glinted in the sunlight, green eyes, and freckles. She was wearing the standard arrival-day t-shirt Camp Blackbear had sent them, and would also be wearing it when the campers arrived and on Parent's Day. She also had an ID tag around her neck, which the camp directors checked before she was let allowed in the camp area. A silver band glinted around her wrist that announced her diabetes to the world. Lacey refused to wear one, but carried a carried a card in her wallet that said she was diabetic and stated her parents' phone numbers and her Uncle Nelson's number, being her doctor.

"Yeah, I was, too. Luckily, things have fallen into a routine again, and if I have no problems at camp, Mom will get off my back about my diet and my injections and stuff. I went into the hospital because I wanted to lose weight, and I lowered my insulin dosages and my numbers skyrocketed, and I went into a coma."

"Ugh, the 'fun' of being diabetic." Said Emily, and then laughed.

"No kidding."

The girls continued to unpack their things, and once they were done they stretched out on their beds. So far, Lacey liked Emily and thought they'd become friends.

"So, the kids arrive in a week, and they stay for six weeks?" Emily asked.

"Yeah," Lacey said. "But lucky us, this week we get to do training and review all of the kids' plans."

Each camper attending Camp Blackbear had to have a detailed plan about their diabetes filled out, like how much glucose to give for low blood sugars, how much insulin they needed and when, and their diet plans.

"Why do we need training? We're both diabetics,we of all people should know the ropes." Emily said, as she glanced at the clock that read 5:48. "It's almost supper."

"Yeah. I'd better inject," Lacey said, flipping up from the bed to her feet and ducking out and grabbing a bottle of insulin and then a syringe and her glucometer. She tested herblood sugar andread 104. She instinctly measured out the right amount of insulin and injected it into her stomach, as Emily did the same.

The girls then left the cabin and stood outside the dining hall until it opened. "Okay, guys!" Said aLeader named Brady, who had sandy hair and a welcoming face" It's your first meal here at Camp Blackbear, and before we have meals, we have to decide who gets in first. Its your job as the counselors to design a special effort with your cabin groups to see who gets in first. It'll take some real creative minds, and we get everybody in as quickly as possible to avoid insulin reactions, but the kids'll be fine for the few minutes extra they'll have to wait. After supper, you all have a 'Welcome to Camp Blackbear' orientation party to mingle with your fellow counselors and the many wonderful staff you'll be getting to know in your seven week stay at Camp Blackbear!"

A cheer went up among the counselors as they entered the dining hall, and Lacey was excited to see that each of the foods were labeled with what type of food choice it was, it made things alot easier! The camp staff filled her plate with the correct servings of each food, and Lacey sat down at a table and waited for Emily. Soon, Emily had sat down with her, and two guys sat down at the table.

Then, Lacey found herself looking into a familiar face.


End file.
